Spain, SanRoque

We recently had a much needed break from school. My friends Johnny and Rosemary, Adam, and I traveled by car and then boat to southern Spain. We drove to the north and took the boat across to Algeciras, Spain and then traveled a bit north to a small little place called SanRoque. I wouldn't really call it a city, it was more of a peaceful turn off the highway. Small streets, all one way, all uphill. We stayed at a little bed and breakfast of sorts and traveled out of there each day.
Johnny and Rosemary lived in Spain for a couple of years in the 90s and had one goal for their trip back: find Nacho. Not the kind you eat... Their son's best childhood friend from their time living in Malaga. So we set off the first day to find him. My thoughts, in a city of thousands of people, we are not going to find him. (Good thing they are the faith people.) We drove around Malaga for about an hour trying to find something that looked familiar, and just when we didn't think we would find anything that resembled their memories, a street caught Rosemary's attention. We found it! Of course that didn't mean we had found Nacho. Our first stop was the old apartment, which we were fairly sure we would not find him still living in. Johnny began ringing buzzers and finally a woman answered and confirmed that he lived in the building and buzzed us in. We walked to his apartment and there was no answer. Oh well. We tried. As we were getting ready to leave a note, the door opened, and there stood Nacho! Johnny and Rosemary were so happy and we spent the day catching up. First at the restaurant they used to frequent, then at a great international tea house, and finally on a brief walking tour of parts of Malaga. He was very welcoming to us and promises to visit us all soon. The rest of our trip was great. Fairly uneventful and that's exactly why it was so restful.
Johnny and Rosemary with Nacho at the restaurant.

Adam... Enough said.




A couple of cool sights on our walk around Malaga.
















We took a quit trip into Gibraltar to do a little touring and shopping at Safeway. Since it is a British "Colony," English is spoken and many familiar goods are available (Campbell's soup, Cadbury Chocolate, Salsa). We got rained out, but managed to find a store to buy some DVDs and spent the night watching The Italian Job, instead of Calendar Girls ;o(

Our trip back across the Straights was delayed 7 hours due to really bad wind. Glad we weren't on the boat.

This last picture is what the inside of the boat (in the cargo) looks like.

English anyone?

OK, this was too good to pass up. On our way to Spain a couple weeks back, we loaded the car up on the ship, went up to the passenger area, looked up, and saw this sign. Something looked odd, but after teaching ESL for five years, if I can decipher it, it works. It served its purpose.

Uniforms...The Great Debate

Our school has a strict uniform policy, most days. The only exceptions are for spirit week (where we get to look ridiculous) and traditional dress days. Twice per year (coinciding with the two major Muslim holidays) students and staff are allowed to wear traditional clothing to school.

Everyone looks great,
and it quiets the
Great Debate of uniforms...
well for one day at least.

Senior F'tour chez moi.

Ramadan is the holiest month in Islam. It is the month where Muslims believe the Koran was handed down from God to Mohammed. They celebrate the month by fasting from sun up to sundown from food, water, smoking, etc. Each day, Muslims break their fast with a small (sometimes not so small) meal called f'tour (Arabic for breakfast). F'tour is the time where families and friends come together to break their fast and hang out. They then stay up late into the night to continue spending time with loved ones and getting enough food and water in to last through the next day.


On one of the nights during Ramadan my Seniors broke their fast with me at my apartment. We had the traditional favorites like msmn with honey, brawits, chabekia, and herera, and some not so traditional treats like pancakes, brownies, and coke. We ate... and then ate some more... then relaxed and played spoons.